Neil Cook

First record of a piebald leucistic smallspotted catshark Scyliorhinus canicula in a special area of conservation, UK - Marine Biodiversity Colour aberrations are widely reported in vertebrates, but seldom for elasmobranchs. Shark trophic level varies ontogenetically and according to species, so atypical colouration may have implications ...

All my PhD fieldwork in Wales was in collaboration with @sarahperry.bsky.social and the fantastic team at @cbmwc.bsky.social.

You can read the paper fully #OpenAccess here - link.springer.com/article/10.1...

You can also see a video of the sighting here -
doi.org/10.6084/m9.f...

🦈 🌊 📹 🌍 🧪

Recent declaration of the #Cardigan-Caernarfon Bay Important Shark and Ray Area by the @iucnshark.bsky.social highlights wider regional significance for #elasmobranchs and the need for more #shark research.

Find out more here - sharkrayareas.org/wp-content/u...

Piebald leucistic smallspotted catshark Scyliorhinus canicula observed on a baited remote underwater video station in Cardigan Bay Special Area of Conservation, UK

This phenomenon is a bit of a knowledge gap for #sharks - instances are rare or seldom documented, and the ecological fitness implications, if any, are unknown.

Our observation was the first in situ for #Scyliorhinus #canicula, and adds to a growing body of similar sightings in other species.

Title page for a research paper published in Marine Biodiversity, describing a field observation of a piebald leucistic smallspotted catshark on a baited remote underwater video station in the UK

A little more #sharkscience from my #PhD at @one-cardiffuni.bsky.social - a Short Communication published in Marine Biodiversity by @springernature.com.

A fortuitous finding from #BRUVS sampling in #CardiganBay Special Area of Conservation in the UK - a #piebald leucistic smallspotted #catshark.

Thanks team for a great week of fieldwork collecting BRUVS & eDNA data for @cbmwc.bsky.social @wtsww.bsky.social DolphinDietDetectives project.
🌊🐟🐬🐠🦀
@neildcook.bsky.social @hannahvallin.bsky.social @guibortolotto.bsky.social

Beautiful morning for a day on the sea in Cardigan Bay. 🌊🐬🐟
Off to collect data for @cbmwc.bsky.social @wtsww.bsky.social #NatureNetworksFund project #DolphinDietsDetectives with
@neildcook.bsky.social @guibortolotto.bsky.social

Next bit of fieldwork with @sarahperry.bsky.social, @cbmwc.bsky.social and co is just around the corner - watch this space! 💙 🦈 🌊 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Goosebumps moment when this #angelshark cruised past our #BRUVS - such a thrill to work with this team on this brilliant project! Excited for more sampling and future findings - watch this space! #criticallyendangered #sharks #sharkscience #marineconservation

A peek 👀 behind the scenes of our recent BRUVS deployments as part of our #NatureNetworksFund #DolphinDietDetectives project 📹🛥️🐟.

#MarineResearch #CardiganBay #BRUVS #cbmwc #wtsww

@sarahperry.bsky.social @neildcook.bsky.social @guibortolotto.bsky.social @maddydemarchis.bsky.social

A great day getting to know the locals and the local history in a beautiful part of Portugal

Excited for the next round of fieldwork with this crew in a couple of weeks!

Photograph of a bottlenose dolphin at the surface of the water chasing a nursehound. The nursehound is being tossed out of the water by the dolphin. Photograph copyright Sarah Perry / CBMWC

#DolphinADay Day 101

Dolphin v shark 🐬

📷 ©️ Sarah Perry, Apr 2025

#CardiganBay #Dolphins #CBMWC #Wales #MarineConservation #WildlifePhotography #WTSWW #MarineLife #Nature #Wildlife #PhotoOfTheDay #CBWildlife #MarineMammals #BottlenoseDolphins #WomenInSTEM #Catshark

@cbmwc.bsky.social

Ditto please!

Always a joy being on the sea in Cardigan Bay - even better when doing some #science with @cbmwc.bsky.social and co!

Vertebral elemental composition reveals ontogenetic changes in habitat use in a Northeast Atlantic mesopredator shark Sharks are increasingly threatened with extinction due to overexploitation. Research priorities to mitigate these trends include identifying ontogenet…

We show that LA-ICP-MS can be a useful tool to yield broad-scale insights into habitat use amongst at risk elasmobranchs in the Northeast Atlantic, where it is yet to be widely applied.

Link to the #OpenAccess paper here - www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

We identified shared habitat use by young-of-year and sub-adults, and sex segregation in adults. Smallspotted catsharks are an important mesopredator - our findings highlight potential sex- and age-biased vulnerability to localised fishing pressure, both considerations for regional management.

Box and whisker plot showing vertebral natural tag composition in smallspotted catsharks obtained from different sampling sites in the UK

Box and whisker plot showing vertebral natural tag composition according to sex and life stage in smallspotted catsharks in the UK

NMDS plot of vertebral natural tag composition according to sex and life stage in smallspotted catsharks from the UK

We analysed lifetime vertebral composition trends of natural tags that reflect environmental conditions - barium, strontium, magnesium, and manganese - in #sharks from the Bristol Channel and English Channel, UK.

We then compared composition between sampling sites, life stages, and by sex.

Screenshot of the research manuscript title and abstract, with author names and affiliations

Happy to share some more #sharkscience from my #PhD, recently published in Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science.

We used smallspotted #catsharks (n = 49) as a model species for Northeast Atlantic elasmobranchs to demonstrate regional applicability of LA-ICP-MS to investigate habitat use.

Yesterday our new #globalsharktrends paper came out in @science.org
@nickdulvy.bsky.social did a great thread on the paper and included some GIFs that we had made but they did not play here on @bsky.app
I'm hoping this now works.
Status change through time...
science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Scalloped hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna lewini) IUCN Critically Endangered © Masayuki Agawa_Ocean Image Bank

New #GlobalSharkTrends study published in @science.org reveals #overfishing has more than halved shark & ray populations over the past 50-years causing widespread erosion of ecological function and exceptionally high extinction risk
👉Full article bit.ly/GlobalSharkTrends
🧵1/20

I'd like to be added please!

Cover of the new "global status of sharks, rays, and chimaeras" report

BREAKING: The IUCN Species Survival Commission Shark Specialist Group has released a new report on the global conservation status of sharks and their relatives.

portals.iucn.org/library/node...

Remote underwater video is a great non-invasive way of sampling the aquatic world. Here are some researchers using this method.

Let me know if you want to be added #BRUVS #RUVS 🧪🌎🦑🦈🐟🐠

go.bsky.app/2HSH6Cg

Absolutely - thanks so much!

Boxplot showing seasonal abundance (in CPUE) of all fish, nursehound, and ballan wrasse; peaks in autumn for all

Nursehound Scyliorhinus stellaris on lobster fishing vessel

Plot showing discard and retention rate for fish species caught as bycatch in lobster pots

Lobster pots on deck of a fishing vessel in Welsh waters

As a newbie here I'll post recent(ish) research shorturl.at/PSW7r

𝐁𝐲𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐄 𝐀𝐭𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐜 (𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐡 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬) 
w @sosbangor.bsky.social fisheries team

10,741 pots, 4+years, all seasons: 1529 fish, 30 species

Most frequent fish: a 🐱🦈 species (bullhuss/nursehound)

Frontiers | Temporal niche partitioning as a potential mechanism for coexistence in two sympatric mesopredator sharks Global marine biodiversity declines require bold and ambitious plans to safeguard ecosystem services. Overfishing, habitat loss and projected climate impacts...

You can read the #OpenAccess paper here -
www.frontiersin.org/journals/mar...

🦈 🐟 🌊 📹 🌍

First post (gulp) is some #PhD #SharkScience work recently published.

Working with @cbmwc.bsky.social we use #BRUVS to document heterogeneous habitat use in nursehounds and smallspotted catsharks in #CardiganBay UK - temporal niche partitioning may facilitate coexistence but more research is needed

Would like to be added please

I'm Neil. I'm a researcher in post-PhD purgatory. I'm particularly interested in how we can strengthen MPAs to confer benefits on sharks. Based in Portugal, trying to carve out my next steps.

Yes please!